UFC 157 salaries: Henderson, Machida top $1.17 million payroll

Co-main event fighters Lyoto Machida and Dan Henderson were the top earners at this past weekend’s UFC 157 event.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) on Wednesday obtained the list of disclosed paydays from the California State Athletic Commission. The total disclosed payroll for the event was $1,173,050.

Machida beat Henderson by split decision to earn a light-heavyweight title shot with the winner of April’s UFC 159 headliner between champion Jon Jones and challenger Chael Sonnen. Former champ Machida earned $200,000 for the victory while Henderson made $250,000. Neither fighter had a contracted win bonus.

Main-event fighters Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche made history as participants in the first UFC women’s bout. Rousey earned $90,000 for her first-round submission of Carmouche (which included a $45,000 win bonus), who made $12,000 in defeat.

Other top earners on the card included Robbie Lawler, who returned to the UFC for the first time in more than eight years and beat Josh Koscheck via a first-round TKO. Lawler made $105,000 while Koscheck picked up $78,000. Additionally, Urijah Faber made easy work of Ivan Menjivar for a $100,000 payday.

“UFC 157: Rousey vs. Carmouche” took place this past Saturday, Feb. 23, at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.

* Burrell missed weight and a percentage of his fight purse went to Villefort.

Now, the usual disclaimer: The figures do not include deductions for items such as insurance, licenses and taxes. Additionally, the figures do not include money paid by sponsors, which can oftentimes be a substantial portion of a fighter’s income. They also do not include any other “locker room” or special discretionary bonuses.

For example, as previously reported, UFC officials handed out additional $50,000 UFC 157 bonuses to Lawler (“KO of the Night”), Robertson (“Submission of the Night”), and Bermudez and Grice (“Fight of the Night”).

In other words, the above figures are simply base salaries reported to the commission and do not reflect entire compensation packages for the event.